Distance
by fringeperson
Summary: He asked her what she was carrying in her bento. Her answer bothered him on a few levels. ONESHOT. COMPLETE. DO NOT OWN CHARACTERS. some adult themes. KakaSaku.


They'd killed Orochimaru, at last, and Sasuke had managed to off Itachi before keeling over himself, and right now, Sakura had the unfortunate responsibility of carrying a little box that held six ... round and organic objects that had previously belonged to the two late Uchihas. Four eyes, two scrotum. Konoha couldn't be allowed to loose such a precious bloodline limit after all, even if that meant enlisting a few women to be artificially inseminated and likely having to deal with single parenthood – after all, who wants to know that the child their partner is carrying isn't theirs?

Sakura was bordering on thirty now, an accomplished age for a ninja, but having spent the last five years mostly in the hospital probably had something to do with that. Glancing down at the box in her hands again, the rosette wished she had never heard of Sasuke. If she hadn't been on his genin team after all, she wouldn't have been sent out after him this time when they finally got exact news of his location, and the nature of his activity, back on the border of Fire Country. He had to be killed however, and his DNA had to be saved so that the bloodline could continue in Konoha, so a medic was required. Better yet, a medic who had some idea of how to fight him, because she had fought alongside him once, though that was many, many years ago now.

"And what are you carrying in your bento today Sakura?" a voice, male and older, asked from up and behind.

Turning and scanning the nearby rooftops, Sakura spotted Kakashi perched on the railing of what she hoped was his own balcony. It wasn't good manners to perch on other people's like that after all. She wanted to smile at the sight of him, and scowl at his comment, but neither happened. She was shinobi, she didn't show emotion. Well, not as much as she used to anyway.

"It's not a bento, Hatake-san," Sakura answered. "It's the Uchiha Clan."

"Shrunk Sasuke down to fit in the box?" he asked curiously, hopping down from his perch to peer more closely at the innocent looking box. He peered at it as though hoping to see through the wooden sides, and reached out to tap the top, perhaps expecting a yell from a tiny Uchiha to ring out from within.

"No Hatake-san, I've only got the ... _bits_ of the last two Uchihas that the Hokage required so that the bloodline could be re-established in the village. I expect she'll want to see you about the contents of this box as well," Sakura explained.

"Why? You haven't even told me what exactly is in it, though I suppose I could guess?" Kakashi asked, turning to walk with her the short rest of the way to the Hokage building, even holding the door open for her when they reached it three metres later.

"I'd like to hear what your genius mind might conjure, though as I say, Tsunade-shishou will probably brief you anyway, so go ahead and guess," Sakura offered, smiling a little bit.

"Do I get hints?" Kakashi wheedled, walking beside her up the stairs to the Hokage's office.

Sakura almost laughed, almost. "What fresh hint could I give you? I already told you the contents of the box were for the re-establishment of the Uchiha bloodline."

"So you did, very well. Hmm... Well whatever is in the box was once attached to an Uchiha, so I'm going to bet it's organic," Kakashi started, looking deeply pensive as he glanced at the box to the hall they were walking down and back again.

"You're being slow on purpose, I'm certain," Sakura said, turning into the waiting room outside Tsunade's office.

"And it has to to with the Uchiha bloodline, which is centred in the eye, so perhaps one or two of those bright red baubles?" Kakashi guessed as Sakura approached the door of Tsunade's office and knocked.

"There's a reason they called you a genius all those years ago then," Sakura joked as Tsunade called her in.

"Hokage-sama, I have the package, and Kakashi Hatake in company, I thought you might want to see him about the contents of the box as well, regarding its nature and all," Sakura said as she walked in, box in one hand, giving Kakashi a gentle kick to get him in the room before she closed the door again.

"Yes, I did, thank you Sakura. Both of you, please sit," Tsunade said, putting aside the scroll that was in front of her and picking up a sheaf of papers.

Sakura placed the box on Tsunade's desk before taking her seat, while Kakashi waited to seat himself last.

"Hatake, do you have any idea what might be in the box?" The ageing blonde asked, though no one would think she was so old to look at her, jutsu still firmly in place and holding strong.

"An Uchiha Sharingan or two?" he offered, just as he had guessed before coming into the office.

"Good guess," Tsunade said with a smirk as she reached forward to open the box. "But not wholly accurate."

Kakashi leant forward to see not one or two, but four red eyes and two small fleshy sacks, preserved in a jutsu to keep them fresh. He gulped at the sight of two sets of balls practically displayed on a platter to him in the Hokage's office. It made a few of the female Hokage's threats just a bit more immediate to the Copy Ninja.

"On a purely voluntary basis, and after the candidates have been screened by a few selected personnel, we will take four young people into surgery and implant each one of them with a Sharingan eye. You will have to train these nin in the use of the Sharingan, adjusting to the way it reacts with their chakra, and so on, so naturally you will be one of the people screening the candidates. If you can't stand them, there's no good asking you to teach them," Tsunade explained, her honey brown eyes fixed on that small portion of Kakashi's face that was visible.

"And those?" he asked tentatively, gesturing as minimally as he could to indicate that he meant the two sets of testicular sacks.

"Also on a voluntary basis, we will be impregnating as many women with the Uchiha sperm as we can, and hopefully multiple times if the woman is willing, which is another reason we will be implanting those eyes into four different people. They will be needed to teach the future progeny of the last two Uchihas," Tsunade explained. "Tomorrow afternoon you will both be summoned to begin the screening of candidates, that is all."

Sakura and Kakashi stood from their chairs, bowed and exited the room as Tsunade called for Shizune to take the box to the bio-weapon cold safe.

---

"Would you like me to treat you to some miso soup, Hatake-san?" Sakura asked as she looked at him, standing almost frozen to the floor in the waiting room to the Hokage's office.

"Sakura, you won't be volunteering for this program will you?" Kakashi asked. It seemed he had yet to catch up to the matters at hand.

"I'll be doing most the medical procedures, and good as I am, I don't think I'm up to performing those kinds of complex procedures on my own body, even with a mirror to help me see what I'm doing," Sakura answered, shrugging.

Kakashi breathed an audible sigh of relief at this.

"Didn't want me for a student again Hatake-san?" Sakura asked, mock-hurt.

"Actually, of all the people I would like to have as my student at this age, you would be top of the list. It's just that I know what it's like to live with a foreign eye, and I didn't want you to have to go through that," Kakashi said, addressing only half of the issue.

"Well, Shishou said she wanted young people to take the eyes. I don't fall as easily into that category as I once did," Sakura tried to joke. "So, miso?"

"How about we grab some takeaway and enough for Iruka as well. It wouldn't hurt to get a look at some of the kids ahead of time," Kakashi suggested.

Iruka was grateful for the lunch, though slightly disturbed by the reason for the visit from the two Jounins, even more so when they finally explained it. Once Tsunade had received the box from Sakura, it was important that the news of potentially receiving a Sharingan eye got around Konoha, otherwise no one would be willing to volunteer for either of the procedures. Iruka was a good starting base for the eye issue, and was able to point out who might volunteer, who would benefit the most from the procedure, and who would in turn be the greatest asset to the village.

When the students started returning from their lunch break, Sakura and Kakashi thanked Iruka and left him to his class. They would have parted ways then, each to their own homes, except that Sakura wanted to talk to Ino, or more accurately, needed to tell her best friend about the blood-line re-establishment program that Tsunade intended to orchestrate, and that meant a trip to the Yamanaka flower shop. Kakashi decided he'd wait by the door, rather than go in.

"Forehead! It's about time you dropped by! You won't believe what you've missed while you were gone on that mission!" The blonde exclaimed the instant she saw her friend, not even waiting for Sakura to say anything before she continued on with all the gossip. "Kiba and Naruto asked Hinata out on the same day! And if you can believe it Hinata, shy little Hinata who we all know has had a crush on Naruto forever, turned him down, cool as a cucumber in ice water, in favour of Kiba! As if that weren't enough, Lee finally managed to land a hit on Neji, and they were both so surprised that they keeled over in the training field! If TenTen hadn't been there they would have both been walking home with sunburns redder than lobster shells! And Shikamaru put in to be part of some ninja exchange program with Sand, he's going there, they're sending someone here, and they're going to be genin teachers, in aid of the alliance, sharing techniques and all that. I heard him talking to Chouji about something being 'way past time' and 'too troublesome to avoid any more' so I think that while he's over there he's probably going to marry Temari-"

"Ino-Pig! Hold on a minute, I'm thrilled to hear it all, but there's something really important that I have to tell you," Sakura interrupted at last, hoping that Ino had been winding down in the news/gossip binge.

"I was nearly done, Sakura, but alright, the last thing I had hasn't been confirmed yet. So, what's your big news? And how big is it?" Ino asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Orochimaru, Itachi, _and_ Sasuke are all dead," Sakura stated, leaning in close, leaving only inches between their noses.

"_WHAT_!" Ino exclaimed. "Sasuke-kun is dead? Now I'll never have his children!"

Sakura did laugh at that. Ino was a bit loose with her affections, there was no denying that, but she had held out on the getting attached, married and having kids just in case Sasuke came back.

"I don't see how this can amuse you so much, Forehead, you've kept yourself for your one true love all your life and now he's dead, congratulations we both lose," Ino pouted.

"Ah, but you still _can_ have Sasuke's children, Ino. Or Itachi's even, if you wanted. I just came back from the mission where they all died, and I brought their balls home in a box. Two eyeballs and a scrotum for each Uchiha. Tsunade wants volunteers to have little Uchiha babies, as many women as possible, as many kids as possible, even more than one kid if the woman thinks she's up to it," Sakura explained with a vicious grin on her face.

Ino's eyes bugged out. "I can still have Uchiha babies?" she asked softly.

Sakura nodded.

Ino turned and bolted out the back of the store. It wasn't long before Sakura smelled incense burning and almost laughter made almost crazy with joy. Ino came back in after only one minute, which Sakura thought was very good of her.

"Where do I sign up for this Forehead?" Ino asked, hair already in an impossible disarray of excitement, which was odd considering Ino could go six hours at a club and still have perfect hair.

"Hokage building, Tsunade wants to keep a very close eye on this project, and make sure all the volunteer mothers know each other, support groups or something."

"Hey, Forehead, you going to sign up for this?" Ino asked. "Since I know you've been holding out for this and all as well."

"No, Pig, I'm not. I haven't been interested in Sasuke, marrying him, or having his children since I was a genin. I got over it, I moved on, I just never felt any inclination towards casual relationships like you did," Sakura answered cooly. It was well past time she put that belief to rest among the general population of Konoha. She wasn't still single because she was pining for Sasuke, she was still single because she hadn't found any reason yet to not be.

"No need to get snappy Forehead, you never said anything before about being over Sasuke, so how was I to know?" Ino demanded.

"You weren't, I'm sorry. I never said anything mostly so that Naruto and Lee would back off if they thought I was interested in someone else, that's all. They're nice guys and all, but I'm really just not interested in them that way," Sakura admitted. "Look, I just got back from a mission where I had to remove, collect and preserve body parts before carting them home in a little box. I need a bath. What's this last bit of unconfirmed gossip?" Sakura asked.

"Apparently the pervy sannin is dead. You know, the one that wrote those books your sensei loves so much," Ino said casually. "Cardiac arrest or something, but it's just a rumour."

"_What was that?_" Kakashi's voice erupted into the flower shop, his lone visible eye bugging out as he twisted and stared in at the girls conversing. Suddenly – so suddenly he'd probably used the body-flicker technique – he was right up in the shop with the girls, single eye begging expressively as it could for more information.

"Unconfirmed, Kakashi-senpai, unconfirmed," Ino said, backing away from the older, and slightly intimidating man.

"And when Ino says a rumour is 'unconfirmed', then she's really just waiting for someone to laugh and declare it completely false and stupid. It's only happened once or twice that an 'unconfirmed rumour' – which is different to gossip, Hatake-san – turned out to actually be true. I expected Sannin-sama has a few years of writing dirty books left in him," Sakura consoled and comforted gently.

Kakashi visibly relaxed and apologised to Ino for scaring her, excusing himself to leave the store. Halfway to the door he stopped though, pausing to look at one of the flowers.

Both girls, curiosity peaked, quietly approached to see which flower he was looking at. Baby's Breath, simple Gypsophila paniculata, a flower mostly used to fill empty space. But there was a nostalgic look barely hidden in Kakashi's visible eye.

"My mother loved these," he said quietly. "She'd fill vases full of them around the house, sometimes pairing them with Love in the Mist, if she could get them."

"Would you like me to do an arrangement for you Kakashi-senpai?" Ino asked, attentive to her current task as girl-in-the-flower-shop.

"Flowers don't seem to last very well in my apartment," Kakashi admitted sadly, shaking his head no.

"I'll have a large bunch, with some Love in the Mist too if you've got it, and a cornflower for Hatake-san to wear in his button hole," Sakura said. "They're pretty and smell nice, and flowers are nice to relax with."

Ino smiled and nodded, wrapping up the bouquet with a simply dusty-blue ribbon and some clear cellophane before reaching over to the cornflowers and choosing the brightest one. "And one Bachelor's Button," she said.

Sakura smiled back and paid for the flowers, tucking the cornflower into Kakashi's button hole before wrapping her arms around her own bunch and farewelling her friend.

"You didn't have to do that," Kakashi said as they walked down the street again, looking down at the flower that represented hope in love, felicity and delicacy. It didn't seem to suit him when he knew that, but he supposed the colour was alright. Hard to go wrong with a nice blue after all.

"Has it occurred to you, Hatake-san, that I did it simply _because_ I didn't have to?" Sakura asked.

"No," he admitted. "Especially not with the way you are being so formal with me today, which I would quite like an explanation for by the way."

"Would you join me for afternoon tea, Hatake-san? I'll make some scones," Sakura offered, seeming to ignore Kakashi's last statement. It was an invitation of free food though, so despite the apparent slight, he was unlikely to refuse.

"Now?" he asked.

Sakura nodded, and when the turn for her house came, they both took it. Sakura had inherited her parent's house when they died ten years ago. It was a nice house, but built to house a couple more people, so sometimes it got to feeling a bit empty.

"So Sakura, are you going to tell me why you've been so impersonal with me today?" Kakashi asked as he sat down at her kitchen table watching her put his mother's favourite flowers in a vase before moving to make scones.

"I just recognise that despite our long association, I hardly know anything about you, so to be so informal with a man who is almost a stranger would be impolite," Sakura explained, a little sadly, not turning to face him as she cut the dough and put it onto the tray.

"Ah," Kakashi said, though the words felt like a kunai to his flesh. "Does that mean you would prefer me to call you Haruno-san?" he asked.

"I believe I have told you nearly everything about myself since I was a genin, Hatake-san. You are free to call me whatever you feel is appropriate," was her answer as she bent to put the tray into the oven.

"Really? Then I'll just call you beautiful all the time," he said, smiling. "Is there any way I can break down that unfamiliarity you feel between us?"

Sakura gave a dismissive shake of her head. "You are a private person, Hatake-san, and have been all the time that I have known you. I don't really expect that to suddenly change now."

"Is this to do with my mask?" he asked.

"No, Hatake-san. If you took it off for me now, I think you would be even more of a stranger to me, since I am so familiar with your face being only a little bit of skin around one eye, maybe two if you are using your Sharingan," Sakura answered. "I'm sure you are a very handsome man beneath the mask, but I'm not the same curious, foolish genin that I was."

"Sakura," Kakashi said, getting up from the chair he was occupying at her kitchen table and moving over to her.

She removed the scones from the oven before turning to look up at him, just a little surprised at how close her ex-sensei suddenly was. Even more surprised when he took her hand in his and drew it up to the edge of his mask.

"I'm a big enough man to know when I've made a mistake, Sakura, and it was a mistake to not open up to you all these years. May I please have a fresh start with you? Though I admit I am not as young as I once was," Kakashi said tugging on her fingers until they were hitched over both of the masks on his face.

Sakura nodded mutely, eyes wide in surprise. She hadn't expected anything like this to happen when she ran into him that morning. Feeling him tugging at her hand, she drew the masks down slowly. When they were gathered around his neck loosely, Sakura tried desperately hard not to stare at the very handsome, slightly older man standing in her kitchen.

"It is my absolute pleasure to meet you Haruno Sakura, I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have a very messy past I would be willing to explain to you over some tea, my favourite colour is green, and I like to dance," he said.

Said the face of a stranger in the voice of a very familiar man. A very handsome face, and a voice that Sakura had recognised long ago was extremely pleasant to listen to. She felt ever so slightly weak in the knees, and ashamed of it. She was nearly thirty after all, not some stupid teenager!

"It is wonderful to finally meet you, Hatake Kakashi, and I would be honoured to hear all that you are willing to tell me about yourself," she answered at last, her voice sounding as wobbly as her knees felt, and a blush was creeping onto her face.

They talked so long, learning about each other in a way they had never done before, that Sakura invited Kakashi to share dinner with her, and then to stay the night, as it got so late, and she enjoyed learning about him.

"But weren't you going to have a bath? I know I heard you say as much to Yamanaka-san," Kakashi protested.

"Is there a reason that you staying the night should stop me from soaking in the tub for a while? If you would like, there is a second bathroom and you are welcome to have one as well. I've still got my father's clothes in a cupboard down the hall, and you are fee to borrow something, Kakashi-san," she suggested.

Kakashi blinked, and his mouth fell open slightly, an expression usually hidden by his mask. His face was very expressive, and he had explained to Sakura that this, coupled with the way some people reacted to seeing his face, was why he had taken to wearing it in the first place. Without the mask on, his surprise was plain to see.

It was also very good to hear that she felt familiar enough with him at last to go back to using his given name, even if there was still the slightly formal suffix attached to the end.

"I would like that very much," he admitted. He would too, it had been a long time since he had felt as at home and unburdened as he did now, in Sakura's house after an afternoon and evening of telling her everything about himself that he could think of, enjoying her cooking, company, and comfort a more than sufficient return for some of the pain he had relived.

Of course, it did still occur to him that he was an older man, in the house of a younger woman, had been invited to spend the night, and that shortly they would both be naked. Even if they would be in separate parts of the house.

Sakura smiled at him, and fetched him out a set of towels and some of her father's old clothes.

"I hope they fit, but I think Father was a bit uh, thicker in the waist than you are Kakashi-san," she said, handing over the pile. "The bathroom is the second door on the left just down the hall, and the laundry is opposite if you want to wash your things. I'll make up a bed for you when I've had my bath."

Kakashi accepted the items and bowed in appreciation, smiling and murmuring a quiet "thank you," before heading down the indicated hall.

---

Sakura gently slipped into the hot water, resting her head against the towel on the edge of the bath, just soaking in the goodness of the bath salts and the hot water and enjoying the steam. She had cleaned herself in the shower before having her bath, and now just gave herself leave to soak for a while. Even with the knowledge that she had to make a bed for Kakashi, she was determined to get in her soaking time.

A mass of beige cream covered her face, tending to her skin gently and slowly. Sakura was rarely so self-indulgent as to concoct a home-facial treatment with her knowledge of herbs, healing, and chemistry, but she had made one up while she cooked dinner, still planning even then to have her long awaited bath.

As she floated serenely in the green-tinted, slightly fizzing water, breathing deeply in gratifying bliss, the medic jounin relished in the vast contrast between now and how her day had started.

She had woken up to the sound of her quarry, the two remaining Uchihas, fighting each other, approximately five-hundred metres below her, just as they had been when she had set her slug summons on watch and wedged herself in the fork of some large tree branches to get some much needed sleep.

They hadn't once noticed that she was there, which would normally piss her off – and what kind of shinobi is that unaware of their surroundings? - but it suited her purpose for this mission. Honestly, she had _hoped_ they would kill each other. Preferably with minimal damage to any of the vital parts she had been sent to collect. After all, if she didn't have to waste chakra fighting them, then she had more for the removal and storage of their parts in her little box, not to mention she'd be able to get home a lot faster.

"Have they even paused for breath?" she had asked the small sentry slug as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"For a while they fought only with genjutsu," the slug had answered. "That was really boring, just muffled screams, no action. I think they got bored with it."

"Well, they're down on their chakra, using almost exclusively taijutsu now. They probably won't last much longer." They hadn't. Sakura watched as the brothers charged each other one last time, and then Itachi was down, his head about a foot away from his neck, while Sasuke slowly slumped, bleeding profusely from two holes – one in his chest, the other in his stomach.

She had gotten to work on Itachi while Sasuke bled out, before moving onto his dead body. The removal of the eyes had been a careful process. She had taken the eyeball itself, as well as the eye-stalk, and even taken some of the brain tissue that the eye nerves were connected to. Knowing the how of the link-ups would help with the reinsertion when in came time to planting the eyes in new hosts.

Surgeries she would likely have to perform.

Well, that line of thought just completely ruined her perfect bath of relaxation and bliss. If that weren't enough, the water was beginning to cool and she was starting to prune up. Time to get out and set up a bed for Kakashi. Water sloshed into the space previously taken up by her body as Sakura pulled herself out by the rim of the tub.

Quickly dried and wrapped up in a pair of warm, green pyjamas, Sakura found sheets and made up her parent's double bed – the only spare bed not in storage.

"I'm not used to having so much space," Kakashi admitted sheepishly, having followed Sakura's chakra signature to the bedroom. "I'd get lost in a bed that size."

"On the road of life? Rescuing a cat from a tree?" Sakura teased gently.

"Aah, perhaps not quite that lost," he answered, chuckling. "Thank you, Sakura."

"It is my honour, Kakashi-san," she answered, smiling just a little before leaving him to get some sleep.

"I'd really like to get as far as -kun, tomorrow," he mumbled to himself as he slipped into the left side of the large bed.

---

When Sakura and Kakashi eventually reached the Hokage building to begin the screening of potential candidates, there was a line of women coming out the door and winding around the corner. Most of them were civilian and alone, but a couple of them were shinobi. Sakura even spotted Hyuuga Hanabi and her father together in the line. She supposed that Hiashi wanted the extra Uchiha Sharingan bloodline to join the Hyuuga Byakugan one.

Ino had performed her task well.

Of course, just because the line went half-way around the block didn't mean that they'd all get the chance to have Uchiha babies. These women would be screened even more heavily than the students Sakura and Kakashi were about to meet about receiving an ocular transplant. Had to have a good home life, good physical health history, good mental health history, safe house, be prepared to actually care for a child, there was a whole lot of stuff these women would have to be tested on and for. The line was just to put their name down to show an interest in the program.

Sakura shook her head and was glad she had gotten over her Uchiha faze. Of course, she was going to be on the receiving end of a similar line shortly.

"Oh look, there's ours," Kakashi said, his tone dry and tainted with blatantly false cheer, as he pointed to a line of academy students with their parents, genin, and even a few chuunin. Thankfully, it was a much shorter line, particularly since each candidate would be screened by five different people for an hour each – some of them would clearly have to come back another day.

Sakura chuckled and shook her head in agreement. The next few days were going to be long ones.

---

Kakashi watched as Sakura fell back into her chair, head hanging over the back, sighing in what was likely to be a combination of total frustration and exhausted relief. They'd been interviewing and examining potential Sharingan transplant subjects for six hours. The tedium was only broken up by the ridiculous amounts of stupidity they encountered, and they really weren't all that funny.

He'd come to her examination room after finishing with his last interview of the day. Really, of all of them, he had the easiest job. He only had to decide if he could bare to work with the personality, there were a dozen other people deciding if the candidates that got past him were physically, mentally, or skilfully suitable enough to be further considered for the surgery and the following training process.

Kakashi had an hour with each child, kid, pre-teen and teen, to see how their personalities meshed, and what he personally thought of their skills, and figuring out how they learned best – all of which was very important if he was going to be their sensei for a while. He wasn't allowed to cut interviews short either, he had to give each individual the same chance as all the others. When a kid came bouncing in, reminding him frighteningly of Naruto shortly after drinking five litres of raspberry cordial, he had groaned quietly, almost asking the guards at the door who locked him in the room with the kid to pick another, _any_ other, and ask this one to come back tomorrow. It wasn't allowed though, and ten minutes in, Kakashi realised that it was for kids like _this one_ that the no-less-than-an-hour rule had been made for. Unlike the kid who came after, who Kakashi had thought on site wouldn't be so bad, but when the hour was up, he was glad that the guards at the door were the ones who would extricate the child. The no-_more_-than-an-hour rule was for kids like that one.

He rapped his knuckles against the door-frame, receiving a slightly lifted eyelid and a twitch of a brow in response, as well as a monosyllable he expected more from the late Uchihas than from Sakura.

"Hn?"

He chuckled quietly.

"It's late," he said, entering and approaching the desk with piles of files all over it, as well as a number of other interesting things that Kakashi would normally stay at least fifteen feet away from, but they weren't directed at him in this instance, so it was okay. "I'm beat, and so are you. How about I treat you to dinner?"

"Sounds really good," Sakura answered, forcing herself out of her chair. "What are we having?" she asked, rubbing some of the tiredness, no, scratch that, the _exhaustion_ from her face.

"I make pork buns from scratch that are usually fit for human consumption, or we can go out to the Broken Bottle and enjoy a pub dinner," he offered. Both options were, he was more than willing to admit, light on the pocket book, but what did that really matter when they really just wanted food?

"Pork buns aren't dinner, Kakashi-san. For a light lunch, maybe, but not dinner. Besides, I'm fond of pub schnitzels," she answered as she crossed the room to the door, flicking off the light before closing the door behind them both.

"The Broken Bottle it is. I'll make you my family pork buns another time," Kakashi promised as he walked down the stairs of the Hokage building beside the pink-haired woman he was enjoying knowing on a more equal and open level.

The only problem with pub food, really, was how very opposite it was of the meals you got in the fine restaurants, at least in terms of the size of the serving. Where some five-star place would have shiny silverware, perfect table cloths, and gourmet food that filled up all of three square inches of a plate a foot in diameter, a pub would have old cutlery that was clean but not polished, few tables and certainly no cloths – unless they were the pool tables that is – but their food was tasty in the same way a the best ever mum's cooking was tasty, and it usually filled up the same foot in diameter plate right to the very edges. One person – with the notable exception of Chouji and his clan – was unlikely to be able to eat a whole one of these sized servings by themselves.

The end result was the two of them, sitting together at the far end of the bar, simultaneously attacking the schnitzel from opposite sides, relishing every bite, and not feeling any need to fight for their share, simply because of the size. Sakura stopped first, leaning against the small back of the barstool and placing a content hand over a sufficiently full stomach.

"Full?" asked Kakashi, his mask down but his face completely hidden by all the shadows of the darkest corner of the bar. It helped that he'd adjusted the direction of the nearest light-bulb of course.

"Ooh, to pussy's bow and further," she answered, wriggling her fingertips around in the air by her neck, like she were adjusting a bow tie there. "You able to finish it off, or am I asking a stupid question?"

Kakashi chuckled. "You're not. It is very filling after all, but I think I should be able to finish it," he answered, then proceeding to slowly do so. It was, as he had said, very filling, and he had more left to eat after Sakura stopped.

"To pussy's bow?" he asked curiously once he had swallowed his next mouthful.

"Mhmm," Sakura answered happily, green eyes shut as she rested and digested. "Everybody in my family, at least on my mother's side, always said something a bit different when they were full. Fully to pussy's bow, to satisfaction, to my high-diddle-diddle, up to here," with the last one she raised her hand to her neck to indicate the level of fullness. "I always stayed with Obaa-san when my parents were gone on missions, and she said full to pussy's bow, licking her lips like a cat licks its chops after its eaten, trying to get any bits it missed from the whiskers around its mouth. But that was a loooooong time ago."

"I didn't know you still had an obaa-san," Kakashi said quietly, glad to be learning new things about Sakura still.

"I don't any more, she was old when I was very little, but she survived to see me make it back from our first genin mission outside the village," and they both knew which one they meant when she said that. "Mama was the first nin in a family of agriculturalists, and Papa came from a long line of nins, so when they were both on missions, I stayed with mother's family. Every other woman had pink hair you know? That's what belonging feels like, I think."

"When you say 'agriculturalists'," Kakashi asked, looking for specification.

"I mean they did everything from farming, to plant science; from pastures to livestock. Chances are good that the schnitzel we just ate came from a chicken farm run by someone in my mother's family," Sakura explained. "I was the first only child in the family too. Farming families tend to have lots of kids, to help with the growing. Mama was a ninja though, so she didn't really have time for a lot of kids."

There was something in Sakura's voice when she said that...

"You feel like you missed out?" Kakashi guessed quietly.

"Well, kinda. I mean, I got to spend _some_ time with my cousins, but they were usually busy with farm work of some kind. A lot of my childhood was me being teased for something really superficial by the kids of other nins, because Papa wanted me to carry on his family's tradition of becoming a ninja, and I was still a bit too little to help with the farming in any way that wasn't already done by another cousin," Sakura answered, green eyes slipping open slightly, though unfocused as they gazed through the shadows of the bar and into memories of a time that felt long ago and far away to her now.

"So if you ever felt moved to child-rearing, you'd want two?" Kakashi asked, enjoying that tonight, even in so public a place as the Broken Bottle, it was his turn to probe and ask questions, where last night he had answered them.

"No," Sakura answered with a sigh. "_If_ I felt like having kids, I'd want a damn horde, and that's coming from a medic who has delivered children before, and gone through sympathetic treatment, so I know damn well what I'd be getting myself into. Nine months of carrying a parasite in my gut, hours of contractions and labour pains, the ultimate delivery, and then having to take care of a small helpless bundle that will do nothing but eat, cry and make mess for at least a year. There are also the hormone imbalances, the stretch marks, the sleepless nights, the ridiculous expense... No, I don't want one or two, I want at least five, though I'd probably draw the line at ten."

She finally sat upright and turned her gaze to Kakashi. "What about you? Ever thought about continuing the Hatake line, Kakashi-kun?"

Kakashi smiled broadly. Not at the question, but that she had called him -kun. Clearly the ploy to have them share the single plate of food had worked, not that it had really been that much of a ploy, since she had suggested it on the basis of her own capacity to eat.

"Not specifically, though a horde doesn't sound too bad to me either. Of course, I'm not the one who would be carrying them for nine months, just doing the midnight nappies. I'd have to clear it with whoever is willing to take on a hopeless case like me though."

"You're not so hopeless, Kakashi-kun. You've just spent a whole day willingly doing something Tsunade-shishou was sure she'd have to bribe you to even consider, and you've really opened up to me over the last forty-eight hours," Sakura pointed out.

"Well, you're a special case... And our beloved Hokage is somewhat famous for losing her bets," Kakashi pointed out.

Sakura chuckled at that. "True enough Kakashi-kun. Ah, never thought I'd call you that. Do you mind?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Not at all, Sakura," he answered. "I like the way it sounds when you say it. Nobody has called me -kun sine I was a teenager."

"So it makes you feel young again when I call you -kun? I suppose I would make you feel older if I started calling you sensei then?" Sakura laughed.

"Even older than when you first did, since you are obviously no longer a child. It's different if children call me sensei, but then they grow up too, and I feel old again," Kakashi admitted, taking a drink in hand and bringing it to his lips.

"We talk about some of the strangest things, Kakashi-kun," Sakura laughed, taking her own drink in hand and clinking the vessel gently to his.

The two friends laughed, happily oblivious to some of their friends watching them from other parts of the bar, all peering intently, straining their ears, and yet unable to see Kakashi's face, or hear everything that they said.

"If he makes first base with the cherry blossom before me, I may have to leave something nasty in his apartment," Genma said, rubbing his chin in contemplation.

"Genma, do you honestly think you can leave anything in Hatake's apartment that is nastier than what's already there?" Gai asked, shuddering at the thought. "You clearly haven't been inside his apartment recently."

"And you have?" Genma demanded.

"Delivering a summons from the Hokage," Gai answered, pulling a disgusted face. "I think his nin-dogs have free run of the place when he's away on missions, and Hatake isn't really domestically inclined enough to clean up when he gets back." Gai shuddered again.

Genma winced. "Maybe I'll just put something in his drink next time or something."

At another table, Lee and Naruto were clinging to each other, both crying over "their Sakura-chan being corrupted" by Kakashi, thoroughly embarrassing Sai, who was with them.

They didn't even notice when Sai called them both "dickless wonders that probably share a dildo."

---

Over the week following Sakura's return from her retrieval mission, she and Kakashi were only seen individually when on duty in the Hokage building, interviewing the young potentials. Every other hour of the day, they were in company together. Talking, laughing, reminiscing and comparing more recent experiences.

Kakashi particularly enjoyed these times, because in such a short time, he had gone from Hatake-san with Sakura, to simply being Kakashi. It felt really good, how open they were. Before Sakura had started being so formal with him, Kakashi would never have been so open with anybody. Would never have wanted to be so open with somebody. He knew very well how much it hurt to lose those who were precious to him to the cruel hands of fate, which was why he had closed himself off to begin with. He would never have suspected that he could lose them while they still lived.

"You're turn Kakashi, we're up to P," Sakura said, interrupting his thoughts.

"P huh? O was operations... some of which I'd rather not have thought about again, by the way," he added with a slightly stern look, but it had meant he got to learn about the mistakes Sakura had made when they weren't working together. "Philosophies," Kakashi answered, smiling. They were working their way through the alphabet, coming up with a different topic of discussion for each letter. Some were, admittedly, harder than others.

"Do the philosophies also have to start with P?" Sakura asked, giggling slightly as she picked up her cup from Kakashi's kitchen table.

"No," Kakashi laughed. "If you can think of one that does though, you get bonus points. Just one liners I think. No need to get too complicated."

"Hmm... If you don't know where you're going, then you will probably end up somewhere else," Sakura suggested, looking into her cup and watching the water for a bit before she took a sip.

"Or even where you're most needed," Kakashi offered. "It is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all."

"Really?" Sakura asked. "Do you think so Kakashi?"

"Take it from a man who's an old hand at losing. Yes Sakura, it is."

"Losing sure hurts though."

"Being empty is worse. It's you're turn, and pick something light. That was supposed to be an old classic, nothing sombre," Kakashi said, hoping to lighten the mood.

Sakura smiled. "I think, therefore, I am."

"In which case, Naruto doesn't exist," Kakashi rejoined, causing them both to laugh.

"Oh you know that isn't fair, Kakashi. Just because the only things that Naruto thinks about are ramen and jutsu, doesn't mean we should tease him like that," Sakura said, trying to stifle her laughter.

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't be laughing," Kakashi teased, still chuckling himself. "Your turn."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," she said promptly, still giggling a little.

"Ah, but some people are proportioned in such a way that they are beautiful mathematically, and maths has yet to get itself a pair of eyes. There are, I agree, certain aspects of beauty that are completely up to the viewer to spot. Like personalities," Kakashi said, smiling and raising his cup to his lips.

"Word change!" Sakura chimed. "You said another topical word that also starts with P, and I'm calling it. Personalities. We are hereby going to consider the personalities of the people around us, including each other."

"Starting with each other?" Kakashi asked.

"If you like, but I called word change, so it's your turn again."

"Then let's start with mine. I like to think that I'm witty and mysterious to those around me."

"You frequently come across as sarcastic, closed off, and perverted, but that's to the people who don't interact with you much," Sakura retorted. "To those of us who've known you longer, you're still all those things, but you're also frustrating. Avoiding the hospital when you need medical attention, masochistic to the point where you have been considered suicidal, because of the books you read the women in the bath house think you must have some kind of fetish, or even more than one. Perfectionist in mission work, obsessive about teamwork, chronically late to meetings with everybody, no matter their rank in relation to yours. For years your work was your life, and when your work is ANBU that just isn't healthy. Oh, and you have no idea how many times I've heard the people around me say oh-so-casually that you need to get laid or ask someone to help you pull the stick out of your ass, unless you swing that way," Sakura smiled as she added the last almost-question to her rant on Kakashi's personality.

"That bad, huh?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura shook her head. "Worse, I'm just being nice," she said, smiling.

"Can we consider you next?" Kakashi asked.

"Sure. I've got a big temper with a short fuse, but I have been working on that. Sometimes I'm a little over-detached and impersonal, particularly when with a patient in the hospital, but I think that's important when giving someone their physical, so I'm not too worried about it," Sakura said, staring off the evaluation of her own personality.

"You're also kind to a fault, loyal almost above and beyond reason, and extremely dedicated to learning all that you can. I've heard you called a work-a-holic, as well as a mini-Tsunade," Kakashi said.

"But I don't wear my hair in pig-tails, and I'm better at genjutsu than shishou is."

"Yes, and unlike with Tsunade, a lot of men will be very jealous of whoever you decided to call -koi. Tsunade doesn't have quite as many admirers as she used to," Kakashi said.

Sakura bit her lip and, with an unsure glance at Kakashi, decided to tempt fate and tread on unsure ground.

"You included?" she asked softly.

The seconds dragged out into minutes as she shifted in her seat, waiting, hoping for an answer. The silence was becoming unbearable when at last Kakashi spoke.

"Yes. Me included."

Sakura's smile was tentative and shy. "Do you mind being the envy of that many men?" she asked quietly. "Kashi-koi?"

"Not if it means I get to hear that every day from now on, Sakura-koi," he answered, slightly breathless at the sound of his name as it rolled off her tongue just then.

Sakura shivered in delight. She never would have thought that a mission to ensure the death of the last two Uchihas, as well as the collection of their vital organs so that their bloodline could continue in the village, would result in _this_ for her.

She was glad that it did though.


End file.
